Dr. Patterson's science than they do by his goodbreeding.

There are no such public schools here as exist in the north. The expenses of education are defrayed by the State, which has appointed commissioners for the poor, whose children are sent to private establishments, where they are taught with those not under the same necessity:-an ingenious method to keep up the most odious features of that distinction which difference of wealth will always make. The consequences of this arrangement are just what might have been expected. Rather than expose them to humiliation, many parents keep their children at home, where they receive little or no education. This feeling in the "lower orders" is imputed to pride; but, if it be pride, it is a feeling very nearly allied to self-respect. These matters are not very equitably estimated. This college draws annually from the public purse 15,000 dollars; while 45,000 are granted for the general purposes of instruction throughout the State; yet the cottager's son is despised by the rich planter's boy, who is sent to a college, built, endowed, and supported out of the same fund that is employed for the education of the former;-as parish paupers in "sheep-skins and goatskins" are objects of contempt to public paupers in "purple and fine linen."

Never in any country have I met with such an unmannerly set of "unlicked cubs" as there were at

dinner the day I left Charlotteville. The students, of whom I have spoken, entered the hotel swaggering and swearing and whistling; and behaved, while at table, in the most disgusting manner. Some of them seized on the brandy-bottle; others darted on the dishes with an avidity that defies imitation or description, and filled their plates and their mouths with both hands. Every man, indeed, was ́ambidexter, and plied his knife and his fork simultane ously, and with equal skill. As soon as the first cravings of appetite were appeased, and the best things secured, three or four who sat opposite, observing a stranger present, endeavored to stare him out of countenance; and, failing in their attempt, they began to whisper to one another, still fixing their looks upon me in the most offensive manner. I was soon relieved from the painful necessity of witnessing the spectacle of youth perverted by indulgence and the insolence of caste. I was summoned to the stage, and quitted Charlotteville, with no very exalted idea of its academical discipline.

These young gentlemen, I was informed, are as famous for their "renowning" as their German brethren; though their mode of attacking" the Philistines" is less manly and heroic. Their antipathies are particularly directed against the tailors; a class of men to whom they are much indebted in more senses than one. We generally say that one man is a match for nine tailors;-they hold the converse to

be true; for they set upon poor "snip" in parties of ten or twelve. A lad, who was recounting these exploits to me with a delight and glee that shewed he would be at the same sport himself when old enough, appeared to think it an excellent joke to “whip a tailor half to death."—" They are so mean!" he observed. Whipping means beating in all its modes and measures, such as kicking, gouging, &c. The meanness consists in dressing better than the students. The latter, during college hours, wear a sort of uniform," consisting (according to the rules) of cloth of a dark grey mixture, at a price not exceeding six dollars a yard." It must be galling to them, when they doff it for a smart coat, to see a better one on the back of the very person who made it. As these embryo-statesmen usually carry a dirk or a pistol, resistance is out of the question. Some of the townsmen have been nearly killed by these young ruffians, and many are afraid to venture out after dark. I am far from asserting this account to be true of the majority; but I fear there are too many to whom this description applies, if I am not deceived by persons who had no apparent motive or intention to deceive me.

CHAPTER XX.

Wilmington.-Drunkenness.-Cruelty to Slaves.-Price of Religious Slaves.-Overseers.-Export Trade of Human Beings. -Destruction of Life by Hard Work.-Richmond.-Education in the South.-Penitentiary.-Treatment of Free Blacks.Black Labor and White Labor.-Ultimate Triumph of Blacks. -Slave Penal Code.-Gambling.

THE stage, in which there was no one but myself, stopped for the night at Wilmington, about twenty, five miles. The road passed through an interesting country, with the exception of a long forest, which, as is generally the case with such scenery, was very tedious and monotonous.

It was a raw, cold morning, though the 4th of May, when the stage, about five o'clock, resumed its route; and I tried in vain to keep myself warm; the leather curtains letting in the keen air to my great annoyance. As the day advanced it improved; and when we left Goochland Court-house, where we breakfasted, having come thirty miles, the weather became pleasant, and I got outside. Before we sat down to breakfast, I was asked by the landlord if I would not

VOL. II.

M

take a dram,—an invitation that I had never had in the North; in which, during my whole stay, I did not see one half the intoxication I had met with in Virginia. Six or eight men had amused themselves the preceding night in drinking and singing and shouting, till two o'clock in the morning, when four of them lay down dead drunk on some straw in a barn adjoining the house where the driver was. They kept him awake all night. The wages of this man were very high. He drove forty-six miles from Wilmington to Richmond, and was paid forty dollars a month, in addition to board and lodging and washing. Other drivers are paid in proportion to the distance, for one stage or route, which is seldom half the former number of miles, about fifteen dollars a month, with the same additions. As the slaves occupy so many employments, one would think that the whites, having so little to do, would, by their number, keep down the wages of the stage-drivers; but this is so far from being the case, that many of them are from the North; it being very difficult to find a steady, trustworthy man who is qualified for a situation that requires habits of sobriety and prudence. The best part of the working-class leave the State.

One of the passengers related to me some facts he had himself seen, that would shock any one possessed of a spark of humanity. He had seen nearly a thousand human beings chained together, and pass